Since it would take me absolutely forever and a day to recount everything I've done over the last ten days, I'm just going to stick to the big things. I believe where we last left off I was hiking through the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia. Man that seems so long ago. But anyway, after that I headed across the country to Penang, the island that has been called one of the most fascinating islands in Asia. I have to agree; I was there for three days and I felt like I hardly saw anything. The first day was largely lost to transit, but the second day was spent walking around the major centre, Georgetown, and sampling some of the food the area is famous for. I went to Little India and had the best garlic naan ever, I had amazing dumplings in Chinatown, and of course some awesome laksa noodle dishes. I know my mother would tell me I should have taken pictures of myself eating the food (like that's going to happen), but since I didn't, lets move on to the next day.
My second full day in Penang I went to see the "World's Most Scenic Temple." I hopped on a bus that took me the 45 minutes across the island before finding myself at the foot of the temple. I started my hike up this big windy road encased in overgrowth from the jungle. It was a pretty nice walk, but I kept wondering to myself why I wasn't seeing other travelers when I was enroute to a major destination. My question was soon answered when a Malaysian woman stopped me near the top of the hill and pointed to the staircase on the opposite side of the temple. Despite the fact that I felt like an idiot, the woman was really nice. She went on and on about her friend in Toronto, and after many months in Southeast Asia I was extremely skeptical that I was about to get some sort of scam pulled on me. Instead of scamming me, however, the lady pulled out a 1 ringit bill and made two origami hearts out of it, and told me that it would mean that we were friends for life. I was shocked, and so grateful for the gift. You get scammed and ripped off so many times in Southeast Asia, and you become so jaded and paranoid that you forget that sometimes the local people are just genuinely excited to meet someone from a totally different walk of life. Suffice it to say, I was more than glad to have walked the wrong way to get such of a pleasant reminder.
The temple itself was a bit too touristy for my liking, but it did have some amazing views.
That was pretty much the gist of the interesting things I did on Penang. Like I said before, it's a place I'll probably go back to when I return to Malaysia since there was so many things I didn't manage to squeeze in. Such is the problem with such a limited amount of time.
After Penang I took the bus across the border to Hat Yai in Thailand. My border experience was the least fun yet with the officials sending me in a million different directions before I figured out where I had to go. I was the only foreigner on my bus as well, so I was quite lucky I didn't end up left at the border. In Hat Yai I caught my bus to Phuket, and the next morning I set off on a yacht to Koh Phi Phi island, better known as Paradise.
Sadly, I don't have many pictures of Phi Phi right now as my camera took a rather unfortunate dip in the ocea leaving it all but useless. One of the girls I met is going to send me some of the ones we all took together, but until then I can't accurately portray its stunning beautify for you in this blog. If I get them before the next blog I'll post them in that, but if not... oh well I suppose!
Anyway, Phi Phi was absolutely amazing. I stayed at this little hostel called Mr Local and met so many awesome people. The first night I was there I had a quiet night in as I was preparing to get up at six to fulfill a lifelong dream: shark snorkeling. I know what you're thinking: "oh my god, she's even crazier than I thought." But it was actually perfectly safe otherwise I (probably) wouldn't have done it. The sharks we snorkeled with were blacktip reef sharks which are only around 5 feet long and way more scared of humans than we are of them. When we jumped in the water we had to silently swim about 200 metres into where the sharks are because they are scared off by the sound of splashing. It was a really unbelievable experience, and I got close enough to them that I could almost touch one! I'm really excited to do it again with some bigger sharks on my next trip.
Other than snorkeling, basically the only other thing I did on Phi Phi was party... and man did I party. My second night there myself and my dorm mates had a big night out that included dancing on the beach, an impromptu jam session, buckets of alcohol, shots of Thai whiskey, and wandering around barefoot looking for pizza at 5am. Unfortunately for me and one of the other girls, we were doing a snorkeling tour at 8am, and believe me having your hangover hit whilst on a longtail boat is not a good experience. Nevertheless, the tour was amazing. We got to see one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Maya Bay where the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed (and I may or may not have gotten sick there). We also saw some amazing marine life including turtles, more sharks, clownfish, trumpetfish, giant tuna, etc etc. The rest of my day was pretty much as a waste due to my raging hangover, but I did manage another early night out before disembarking from Phi Phi the following morning. I honestly wanted to stay longer, but I knew I had to move on as I had already spent two more nights there than I originally intended.
And that brings us to where I am now where I'm currently sitting in Koh Tao, an island in the Gulf of Thailand, in a resort on an extremely remote beach.
How did I end up here? Well let me tell you.
Tonight, there is a party occurring on the nearby island of Koh Phagnan called the Full Moon Party. This party attracts thousands of backpackers and it is known worldwide. I hadn't planned on hitting it up since I had so little time, however my friends I met on Phi Phi had me convinced to go and meet them there. Accommodation on the island is ridiculous during full moon, and you have to book a minimum of four or five nights to get a room. Seeing as how I'm leaving the country in three days, I didn't want to have to do that so I decided to stay on nearby Ko Tao. I figured I would ditch all of my stuff in a decent and secure hotel room and then take the boat over for the party. Oh how wrong I was on so many levels.
I left Phuket for Koh Tao yesterday at 1pm and didn't arrive until 3pm today, approximately 10 hours late. How did that happen? Well, when I arrived in Surrat Thani to catch my boat last night, we were informed that the ferry would not be leaving that night due to high winds. As you can imagine, I wasn't pleased. So, myself and these other two Canadian girls ended up sharing a room in this random hotel in Surrat Thani. The hotel itself was nice, but when I was walking around to get food I saw more than a boat load of prostitutes in less than ten minutes. I was a little sketched out, but we survived the night just fine and made it to the boat the next morning. I have to say, I can't imagine what the hell kind of waves they must of had last night because I swear to god I thought I was going to die on that boat today. By the time we made it to Koh Tao, I was about four and a half seconds away from vomiting all over the person in front of me. I suppose I was one of the lucky ones as I saw more than a few people dangling over the side and being helped out of the boat.
So I made it to Koh Tao, and I thought to myself that maybe I could still ditch my stuff at my hotel and manage to find a boat leaving of Koh Phangan.That was until I found out that the reason the hotel I had booked was so cheap was because it was a twenty minute drive through the jungle away from civilization, officially making it impossible for me to make it there. I was a little disappointed, but the place I'm staying at is actually really beautiful. The beach is really remote and scenic, but I couldn't even buy a disposable camera so I could take pictures of it because there are no stores out here. Just another one of those unfortunate things that always seems to happen to me I suppose. Oh well, after 22 years of it I've learned to take it in stride.
I suppose this is my second last blog, considering the fact that I'm only three days away from my triumphant return to Canada. Since I'm going to have to buy some disposable cameras for my last few days, its doubtful I will get anymore pictures up, however I will definitely leave you with a few closing thoughts at the end of my trip.
Until then, remember, whatever can go wrong will go wrong (Murphy's Law... which I think should be officially changed to Sarah Murphy's Law).
Sarah
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